I think the part right after this walk of shame where she starts belting out "Let it Go!" didn't make it through editing.
Sagna was a beast of a fullback, if he could of crossed better he would’ve been world class clichey was the left sided version of hector. Speed but no skill in terms of defending or crossing he also left a comical gap in the half space between him and vermaelen which Messi scored about 15 goals in
Wenger simply didn't know how to coach fullbacks, period. https://www.eurosport.com/football/...e-to-be-best-left-back_sto6665301/story.shtml In fact, one can argue he doesn't know how to coach defenders. Given the wealth of attacking talent he developed, how many defensive talent did he develop in comparison?
He really wanted wingbacks who provided width and crossing. Sadly, he never really got that right. I never understood why so much of our attack relied on the crossing/ cut backs of our defensive players. It was ass backwards. Sagna was a good fullback, but he was a mediocre wingback .To be fair, it is difficult to ask a defensive player to be good going forward and good defending. Tierney and, to some degree, pre-injury Bellerin are the only ones who I think were good on both sides of the ball. Before that, you have to go back to Cole and Lauren, but we played a 4-4-2 and they had midfielders who took the offensive responsibilities from them a lot more.
Arsene clearly believed that the best defense was a good offense. He started his career at Arsenal with an experienced group of defenders and then generally replaced them with transfers, who had already been developed, not academy products. Some of those transfers proved to be good decisions, Campbell, Koscielney, Mertesacker, Sagna, Monreal,, some not so good. But as far as developing fullbacks is concerned, don’t forget Cashley. Wenger was much more focused on offense than defense, he almost certainly left that side of the team to his assistants.
And remember, Lauren was originally a midfielder, who Wenger moved to a FB, similar to Gio van Bronckhorst.
this always threw me. he had technique so that was not the problem. but, with few exceptions, his crosses were almost all on the first defender. yeah, clichy was fast and, unlike monreal, he could run the whole game without being gassed. but, like you said, he was good on neither offense nor defense.
to be fair, while koscielny and toure were not academy products, they became their best selves with us. koscielny had all of something like 35 appearances in ligue 1. he had amazing instincts but, in his early years, he could be counted on for at LEAST 1 bonehead play every game. (holding is remarkably like him in that regards.) kolo turned out well but, like with cole/adams, the credit there might be on campbell. i think he was at his best then. just like koscielny, for me, being at his best with mertesacker. what's funny to me is, for all his talks of "not blocking the kids", he had some kids who may not have been stars but could have been contributors with the senior squads . . . and never trusted them. ayling, hayden, and bartley are all playing extensive minutes now in the premier league. and, as many times as he apparently traveled to see nordtveit, he never gave him a shot.
lauren was on the handbrake off podcast early on - and he talked about not being particularly keen on that transition. it was a fun listen.
Lauren was pretty average offensively though. That Lauren/Ljungberg right flank had next to no playmaking ability.
Yeah, it was a good listen. I go back and forth as to whether I like that pod (not as funny as Blogs, not as tactically insightful as AV), but that was definitely a good episode.
i like amy lawrence and james mcnicholas - but he's also on arseblog. don't care for ian stone's attempt to be funny/snarky . . . but, also, JKLOL-winky face "i didn't mean it . . . unless you thought it was funny because then i totally did". i know dixon is a club legend but his dour "i am the one realist" schtick gets old. funniest moment on that podcast for me, so far, was stone lamenting that he went to a gig on the wrong day and was told to come back the following tuesday. amy lawrence had a brief pause before returning with, "so you were told a literal see you next tuesday then?" gold.
I generally like Handbrake Off and its personnel. I have a real soft spot for Amy. They have some good guest interviews sometimes. But when he gets near the end and says "How about a song?" I tend to cringe.
i like her, too. she just feels like a fan, without pretension otherwise. yeah, that spot feels tryhard. like, a "we must create a schtick" thing. i don't care for how stone tries to make it into a funny but i do like the random player thing.
That was a time with limited expectations from FBs. Before Dani Alves happened. If you look at our rivals that time. They barely had compelling alternatives. Infact they were dismissed for attacking too much and leaving spaces to be exploited. These days it's almost a prerequisite to do both attack and defend.
That's why Busquets and similar players became so important. They're like sweepers who drop back instead of penetrating forward. I think Pep spent like 250m on fullbacks before he found ones that did what he needed.
Precisely like Fabinho or Henderson at Liverpool. On full backs I think Pep was unlucky. Walker is a decent servant, Mendy ended up being injury prone. Danilo was bad business. Cancelo is a steal
Spot on. I mean, I listen to it pretty much every week, but I agree with your observations. When it first started, I thought, cool, Dixon on a pod every week. And while I love his insights about his playing days and the folks he played against, etc., his insights about the most recent match usually are just the "passion, hustle, grit, or lack thereof, etc." kind of bromides that don't tell you much. Ian Stone wanted Mourinho - enough said there. Although I guess he deserves some credit for owning up to that and accepting the ridicule, mostly from James on that account. Amy is like an Arsenal encyclopedia which is great and makes her worth listening to. Also love her Sweet Caroline rants but, man, the rest of her music taste seems like a time capsule from like 1981-86.
This is something I've noticed in other sports as well - lots of the ex-pro's either don't know much about the game beyond playing it, or simply can't articulate it. it's what I found Jose to be an excellent pundit because he understands the game at a high level, but also can explain it. He even revealed that Carra and Neville were clueless about some of the overarching tactical approaches
Yep - it's key to Pep's tactical scheme because the 6 is where the playmaking space is, particularly if he drops deeper. It's also why players like Lulz and Hummels were valuable. I mean the perfect Pep fullback is Philip Lahm so that player is very hard to find. He has to be a good defender, and a decent wide midfielder all in one. It's why he loved Kimmich so much.
Many of us become fixated on the music we listen to between about age16 to 24, so I’d guess she was born in the mid sixties.